Tag Archives: corporate citizenship

Posted on15 November, 2016byCIPE Staff|Comments Off on Democracy that Delivers Podcast #42: Kalsoom Lakhani on her Journey from Storytelling to Empowering the Startup Community in Pakistan

Podcast guest Kalsoom Lakhani

On this week’s Democracy that Delivers podcast, Invest2Innovate (I2I) CEO and Founder Kalsoom Lakhani talks about the trends, opportunities, and challenges that entrepreneurs face in Pakistan and the report that I2I just launched that looks at the environment for start-ups and investors in the country. Lakhani traces her work today back to her childhood in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and to her early interest in conflict resolution that stemmed from hearing about her family’s experiences during the Bangladesh War of 1971. The stories she heard as a child still resonate today as she seeks to increase understanding around the world about what everyday life is really like in countries such as Pakistan that are often best known in the West for violence and instability. Lakhani talks about how her interest in social justice led her to venture philanthropy and to the work she does today helping shape a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses in Pakistan.

Earlier this month at the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Conference, CEOs from diverse organizations gathered for a Plenary Panel titled “Lessons From the Top”. The CEOs represented a variety of industries and include the YWCA (non-profit), United Nations Foundation, and two socially-minded for-profits: Starfish Media Group and Reserveage

This year’s event focused on results. As the Corporate Citizenship Center’s Executive Director Marc DeCourcey put it, “In today’s world, companies must ensure that every dollar spent is meaningful, that every employee volunteer opportunity is worthwhile, and that every investment shows a return. Companies must ensure that their work is driving measurable, lasting impact.”

A recent CEO study on sustainability conducted by the UN Global Compact and Accenture – the third one of its kind – reached out to more than 1,000 executives from 27 industries in 103 countries around the world, asking for their views on the past, present and future of sustainable business. This largest-ever CEO study on sustainability offered a mixed picture of global movement in the positive direction juxtaposed with the frustration over slow progress.

In the previous edition of this study, conducted in 2010, CEOs were optimistic that sustainability – understood as the active management of social, environmental, and governance issues as a part of core business – would soon become a norm embedded into operations of companies worldwide, with leadership on sustainability incentivized and rewarded. In 2013, 63 percent of CEOs still expect sustainability to transform their industry within five years and 76 percent believe that embedding sustainability into core business will drive revenue growth and new opportunities. However, the predominant feeling is that global business efforts on sustainability may have plateaued, and despite deeper awareness and commitment levels many business leaders deem the pace of change and the scale of impact insufficient.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), or corporate citizenship, is not a new concept. The idea that businesses should be responsible and engaged members of their communities, both locally and globally, has been around for quite some time. However, the understanding of what that means in practice and what the larger significance of good corporate citizenship is has evolved over time. Today it is more important today than ever before.

In a world where sustainability has become a global buzzword, companies are reassessing how their business impacts local, national, and international communities. Companies are also taking a proactive approach and thinking about what role they can play in a building better and more sustainable society.

While all that sounds nice, what does it really look like in practice? What does it mean to be a good corporate citizen?

Good corporate citizenship starts with good corporate governance. According to a guidebook recently published by CIPE partner the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia (ADFIAP), corporate governance “is an internal set of rules that ultimately focuses on accountability of the business to its investors and stakeholders.” In other words, an organization must ensure good business practices, sustained growth, and risk management before it can be accountable to its community.

Siemens is a leading supplier of technologies like wind turbines that help its customers reduce their environmental impact. (Photo: Wind Power Monthly)

As companies around the world strive to create sustainable value chains, they are paying increased attention to the operations and management practices of their suppliers, distributors, and partners. A recent joint research project of the American Society for Quality, the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association, and the Institute for Supply Management with Deloitte Consulting LLP took a closer look at what improves the effectiveness of sustainable value chains. The project gathered almost 1,000 responses from sustainable supply chain executives.

The responses measured how much a given management practice can increase an organization’s sustainable value chain effectiveness, as compared to respondents not adopting the practice. Not surprisingly, among the top 10 such management practices, the top five have to do with engagement, organizational culture, and incentives (percentages represent an increase in sustainable value chain effectiveness):

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